A Prophecy of Two Boys

Chapter 17

"So that's what you were doing." Lily said, giving Harry a disapproving look. "Next time you could actually come when I call and give me a hand round here! And don't slouch at the table! Dear Merlin, you think we'd raised you in a barn…"

Percy looked down at his plate and didn't say a word. Of course, this just riled up Lily and his father even more.

"Harry, reply to your mother when she's talking too you!"

Percy gave Charles a pleading look. Charles nodded, and frowned at their parents. "He's Percy, not Harry. Can't you tell the difference?"

"No, enough!" Lily shouted, running a hand through her hair in exasperation. "I can't deal with this anymore! You are Harry. Just Harry, and nobody else. For Merlin's sake, boy, grow up!"

Percy and Charles looked at their mother in dismay and hurt. Charles even looked furious at the way they were yelling at his brother. He opened his mouth to say something but Percy shook his head. He still didn't utter a word, he just stood up from the table and walked calmly out of the room, leaving his plate untouched. It was only when he reached the door that Percy turned around to look at his shocked parents.

"We're sorry that we can't be who you want us to be, Lily."

Those words where the first that either Harry or Percy had spoken to their parents in months. Usually they just spoke to their brother, the one person in the house who could still understand him. Lily and James used to too at one point. They could accept that they were two people and still their son. But, as they grew up, their parent's got more and more frustrated with them, claiming that Percy didn't exist.

Percy left the room, leaving his parents to stare after them in shock. Sometimes there was just no point in arguing back. Harry and Percy had long since accepted that not everybody could see the world in the way that they did, and decided that sometime the best course of action was just to walk away, happy knowing that they were right even if other's couldn't see that.

Despite not eating breakfast, the small six year old boys decided that they just weren't hungry, and headed outside, towards the woods that lay at the far end of the field that Charles and James often flew in.

From the outside the woods looked dark and ominous, leering down at the little six year old as they approached the treeline. Finger-like twigs reached towards them, pulling the boy through the prickly border and into the familiar woods beyond.

Light filtered through the green leafy canopy above, washing the forest in a warm light. Wood nymphs immediately gathered round them as they walked down the invisible path to their little private clearing. Along the way little glowing fairies floated by, and mushroom shook as they sang their welcome. Centaurs trotted past, regarding Harry and Percy as one of the Forest, not a Wizard and the spawn of everything wizards' had done to them. Satyrs hung back in the shadows, watching them and making sure they were safe.

When Percy reached the clearing he drew to an abrupt stop at the sight of five men, sitting around in the clearing. They had rough beards and tatty long hair, as if they hadn't shaved or properly showered in a long time. Their clothes were thread bare and patched up in so many places that they were practically made up of patches of different materials. Their fingernails were muddy and hooked like claws, much like their toenails on their shoe-less feet. Sharp fangs peeked out from under their lips as they chatted with one another.

As Harry and Percy's smell reached them the men turned around to face them, cautiously sniffing the air. They blinked in surprise at the sight of the young boy dressed in his pyjamas, surrounded by woodland creatures. From the river that ran by the edge of the clearing three naiads emerged, watching the scene and casting warning glares at the men.